"On Christmas Eve there was a lull in the fighting, no firing going on at all after 6 p.m. The Germans had a Christmas tree in the trenches and Chinese lanterns all along the top of a parapet.Eventually the Germans started shouting, "Come over, I want to speak to you."

99 years ago tonight World War I was the fourth month of what would turn out to be its four year duration. And on that first Christmas Eve of the war, the soldiers fighting in what was still a largely Christian Europe, called a truce without consulting their superiors.

This website give a short history of The Christmas Truce.